[VLM]

The only vote that matters is college graduate HR personnel, and their vote is that CC and associates degrees are lower than worthless, literally a waste of time, would be more likely to hire with two years of entry level or minimum wage work than with an associates degree.

Any CC student whom is motivated by employment is flushing their money down the toilet if they're on a track or a program.

I was in a transfer program along with several other kids and that program worked very well, but "most" people paying for CC are wasting their money.

The non-credit courses are, however, a good deal and an excellent way to learn and skill up. Note that paying 100x as much to make those courses "credit" courses is worthless if the degree or cert granted is considered worthless in the workplace. And the institution cannot stay in business if everyone takes non-credit courses instead of being on a very expensive "associates degree" or "certificate" path.

[etempleton]

This is true. Community Colleges can be a great tool if you know how to use them. The best value is to go two years to a community college that has automatic acceptance to a 4 year state school. You then get to finish your degree at what may be a fairly prestigious state school.

The other way to use Community Colleges is to focus on something that has a very specific certification or outcome just by finishing the certificate or degree program.

An associates degree from a community college by itself has minimal value.

[mike50]

ASN degree still have some value. Decent technician programs for Engineering Technicians (not car repair or similar). The only way to get a real electronics technician nowadays is through a two year degree program.